Editorial

The Tragedy of Africa

The world is witnessing a tragedy unfolding in Western Africa, with civil war tearing apart several countries of the region. In recent weeks, the armed forces of the United States have entered Liberia and French troops have been sent to Sierra Leone in order to "restore order". A similar tragedy has gripped Congo, where hundreds of thousands of civilians have died at the hands of warlord armies. The situation in many other countries of sub-Saharan Africa is also deteriorating rapidly, with civil strife escalating and an HIV/AIDS epidemic devastating their populations.

Also in recent weeks, George W. Bush, Jean Chretien and other Western leaders have made pious pronouncements about their concern for the well-being of the African people, pledging billions of dollars in aid to the region on the condition that the African governments clean up their acts and put an end to economic and political corruption. These pronouncement are hypocritical in the extreme and cover up the root cause of the tragedy of Africa, which is the imperialist system itself.

During the 1960s and 1970s a wave of anti-colonial struggles for national liberation swept across the African continent. The people stood up and seized their destiny in their own hands. Anyone who was truly concerned about the well-being of the African peoples hailed and supported these national liberation struggles. However, the attitude of the United States and other Western imperialist powers was anything but supportive. Using open and covert methods, the spy agencies and armed forces of these imperialist powers systematically assassinated, imprisoned or otherwise removed from the scene all those African political leaders who showed any sign of being genuinely revolutionary or democratic. In their place they installed and propped up the most corrupt and tyrannical puppets, such as Idi Amin in Uganda, Sese Seko Mobutu in Zaire, Charles Taylor in Liberia and others who were used to suppress the local populations while the imperialists and their corporations robbed Africa of its immense mineral wealth.

When the HIV/AIDS epidemic struck Africa, these same imperialists opposed any efforts by local governments or humanitarian agencies to provide the victims with cheap drugs, upholding as primary the right of the pharmaceutical giants to make obscene profits. As a result, over 20 million Africans are expected to die over the next few years from this disease alone. Millions more will die from other, more treatable diseases like malaria, from starvation and malnutrition or at the hands of warlord armies organized, financed and armed by the same imperialist "humanitarians". The flower of Africa's youth is being sacrificed to the profits of the multinational corporations.

The plight of Africa exposes the true face of imperialism. This is the reality of imperialist humanitarianism. To suggest that those with the blood of millions of Africans on their hands are now going to solve the problems of the African people, or that the imperialist troops being sent to Liberia, Sierra Leone and other African countries are going there to keep the peace, is to add insult to injury. All of these measures are being taken to tighten the imperialist noose around the necks of the African peoples, to further escalate the rape of the African continent.